


diorama crossing

by trashmouthz



Series: For context: Bakura Is Back [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Brotherly Bonding, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gemshipping, I won't lie I wanted to try to give Bakura™ another name for a long time so I just DID IT, M/M, Mild Language, Other, Ryo and Bakura have bonding time, Tendershipping, Thank you Nintendo, They became YouTubers you guys, Yami Bakura | Bakura has his own body, no beta we die like men, reference to that one horror movie, referenced Thief King Bakura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24152800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashmouthz/pseuds/trashmouthz
Summary: “hey bakura, i did something for you. i hope you like it, it shows in the design app :)”Or: Ryō and Bakura get obsessed really fast with videogames and, accidentally, find a way to start closing cycles.
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura
Series: For context: Bakura Is Back [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742986
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	diorama crossing

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [diorama crossing](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/622555) by Trashmouthz. 



> Real talk, this is horrible but I spent my whole weekend thinking about it while I played Animal Crossing.

Honestly, neither Ryō nor Bakura expected something like that to happen. 

The time they used for “healing” or “emotional bonding” is always something that they planned in their complicated agendas; Ryō has a day job, Bakura has a night job; it’s reduced only to a short time playing Monster World and planning new campaigns that—in the future—would be played when someone (aside from Yūgi) wanted to join them, it’s not ideal, but three is better than two. It’s the only hobby that they found to share without being _too_ uncomfortable. 

Bakura always mentions with a bit of bitterness in his tone of voice that, even if he likes a lot having stupid duels; RPG campaigns are always more entertaining, more elaborate, with a better strategy and with more imagination. 

“ _They are idiots, yadonushi. Did you expect it do be different?_ ”

Ryō never gives him the satisfaction of answering that a part of himself, maybe the one that was too used to the spirit of the ring’s attitude, agrees with him. He stays silent, and lets that to be his answer. Maybe everyone likes better the simplicity of duel monsters. You don’t have to think about anything else but the strategy for the deck that its put together and used; you don’t have to fill character sheets, or think about a class you want to develop, in their powers and abilities, their physical appearance, a story that explains the behavior and motivations that they have. The appearance of the monsters it’s already done by someone else, without a background, you don’t have to think—too much—.

Understanding that they have to spend time together to _close cycles_ is complicated; avoiding the tension that flies over their heads like hungry vultures waiting for them to kill each other to eat them is also complicated, there’s too much history that still bleeds between them. This is why they reduce the time as much as possible, because the weight in their shoulders is immense. There’s always an excuse, even living under the same roof.

Bakura can’t avoid watching how Ryō touches the scarring in his left hand, or when he takes his hand to his chest where he knows are five scars forming a perfect circle (he knows because he also has them) when he sees him; it’s like a phantom itch that refuses to disappear. 

Ryō can’t avoid watching how Bakura’s eyes get darker when he sees him, filled with ghosts that agonize in fire and gold, an eternity wandering in the shadows and a revenge that was never fulfilled. 

This is why, for both of them it was a surprise the time they decided to spend playing “Animal Crossing”.

* * *

Ryō was already familiar with the games, he used to have a Game Cube where he played the original title and also had a DS years later where he played “Animal Crossing: New Leaf”. He completely skipped the one from the Wii because the console didn’t spark his interest enough to buy it, there were not a lot of games that grabbed his attention; even with “Animal Crossing: City Folk” in existence. 

In the beginning, both of them thought the fact that the Switch only let them have one island was awkward because they expected to have their own one like in past titles (at least this is what Ryō mentioned), Bakura cursed this fact more vocally than Ryō. It was _weird_ that even in the game they had to share the same space. 

Their characters weren’t identical. Ryō’s has the lightest skin tone and the whitest hair that the game had to offer. There’s no hairstyle close to his—so he had to use the one with the long straight hair and full bangs, brown eyes. Bakura’s on the other hand, has dark skin, the hair is the same white Ryō used but shorter and messy, gray eyes.

Ryō knows that Bakura misses to look like he did in the past. For some reason he came back as a reflection of Ryō, as if they were coated by the moonlight. The only notable difference is the gray tone in the border of Bakura’s irises, and that he now has shorter hair over his shoulders after a visit to a hairstylist. 

* * *

Their life is like some of the stories that they make up for the campaigns, this is what they tell anybody who wasn’t part of the Millenium Item’s fiasco. People have _no idea_ of what happened, and they don’t know how hard everything is now with all those years they have to drag with them now, like shackles in their ankles and a key that was lost a long time ago, leaving them without the possibility of freedom. 

“ _It’s a funny story—_ ” Ryō starts every time someone asks and Bakura stays silent with a scowl in his face, but he doesn’t stop him. “ _We were separated when we were born, we suppose that my brother was kidnapped and just a few years ago we reunited again. Life’s like that_ ” and then he adds a well-rehearsed nervous smile to the story, hoping that no one asks anything else because it’s a subject that anyone in the same position would find hurtful (supposing it was _real_ , of course). Bakura always avoids looking at the fucking nosy people in the eye, resigned to be Ryō’s twin brother. 

“ _His name?_ ” this is now a common question, but the first time they were asked this they felt their stomachs cold with nervousness, they had no idea what to answer. They didn’t think about it, not to that point—they thought people would _understand_ that they didn’t want to talk about it because of Ryō’s sad expression and Bakura’s scowl. 

“ _Minkabh Bakura! Would you believe he grew up in Egypt? All this time so close and so far when d-dad had a dig there..._ ” and then, another nervous laugh—this one Bakura didn’t know if was rehearsed or not—. Ryō gave him a nervous glance that lasts less than a second, but doesn’t go unnoticed.

“ _It means_ justice”, Ryō added. And Bakura choose to ignore as much as he could the pain that he felt in the chest when he heard those words. He is not just, he is a monster of three thousand or so years that destroyed his life and sold his soul to the darkness to accomplish a _vendetta_. If he were to be judged by the scales of Ma’at this would be reflected there and he would’ve been devoured by Ammit; he is not just, he never was.

* * *

It started with a tiny gesture, one day when Bakura was working Ryō decided to design a face paint with the shape of the scar that Bakura used to have under his right eye when he was the Thief King and then he sent him a letter to Bakura’s character in pink paper decorated with cherry blossom flowers—this was now Ryō’s favorite after obtaining it during the April’s Cherry Blossom Festival, as he was still lacking Halloween designs. 

“`hey bakura, i did something for you. i hope you like it, it shows in the design app :)`”. He paid the 200 bells to send the letter and then he contained an anticipation smile because he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. The anxiety made his fingertips itch, forcing him to do any other stuff to keep himself busy the rest of that day. He dedicated himself to catch bugs and fishes to collect money to pay his house and the bridge he put under construction, he dug just half of the fossils to let Bakura have the other half and he constructed a rope fence for the flowers he planted before going to sleep.

When Ryō woke up the next morning he and Bakura ate breakfast together before Bakura went to sleep to wake up on time to go to work, during the week the only time they spent together was during breakfast. Bakura was silent and Ryō didn’t express it, but he felt a tiny pain in the chest that made breathing a difficult task. 

It wasn’t until he came back from work and he logged in his session that he saw a green leaf on the side of his house. He made his character pick it and he got inside his character’s almost barren house—he still didn’t find items that he liked enough to decorate his house with them—and decided to place whatever Bakura left him, he knew that it was him because none of the NPCs of the game were able to do something similar. His eyes shined when the leaf transformed in a skeleton that he immediately used to decorate the living room. 

Since that moment, little by little both of them started decorating the whole island. Bakura never said it but he was surprised by the harmony of their ideas and what they wanted to do, this must be all the time they already spent together—including the time Bakura spent in the ring. Now they dedicate weekends to be together—lately, they don’t pay much attention to the RPGs, at least not as much as before—because they are too busy with the terraforming feature of the game. They got in their heads that they could build a diorama, a labyrinth, an entertainment place for when someone visits their island. _Assuming_ that the people they knew where going to do it. 

“We could post it on Reddit, Bakura” Ryō suggest in a low voice. “People seem to like that kind of stuff, ah— build here another cliff” he points at the spot on the screen of the television. Bakura’s the one now playing at the moment and Ryō can feel how hard his heart beats every time he catches a glimpse of Bakura’s character wearing the face paint he did for him. It truly looks like the Thief King, with a red t-shirt instead of the cloack and khaki cargo short instead of the shendyt he used to wear.

“Yeah” Bakura agrees “but I don’t feel like writing”. He stays silent a few minutes while he builds the cliff block by block, without making a remark telling Ryō to publish the islands screenshots and the description on Reddit. “Maybe...” he starts “we should to a YouTube channel for both of us and... tell stories with what we build, as we do on Monster World”.

Ryō can see Bakura is blushing, probably what he suggested didn’t go through a filter and currently, he has no idea why he wasn’t able to contain himself from saying it. He can feel his own face heating, he knows that his cheeks are as red as Bakura’s and his voice falters a little, he then nods as a reply. 

“I-it’s a good idea” the first thing he does is watch the screen, too nervous, thinking that if he kept his gaze over Bakura his feelings would overflow. Because he has no idea what he feels about Bakura. 

Bakura is silent again, finishing the cliff. His nose is scrunched, his face thoughtful. Ryō has a similar expression and, probably, if they could watch themselves in the mirror they could see how identical they are. 

“I don’t think I like how it looks there” he sighs, “I’m sorry, Bakura”.

Bakura then proceeds to use the same tool to, block by block, remove the cliff.

“What name should we use?” he asks suddenly, surprising Ryō.

“To what? I don’t think we are able to change the name of the island” he starts, confused, “I _thought_ you liked ‘Camp Crystal Lake’”.

“I didn’t mean that, yadonushi. I meant—” he lowers his voice, embarrassed “the YouTube channel...” he clears his throat, dedicating him a side glance a few seconds before looking at the screen again. Now Bakura’s character runs to the store to sell some stuff he got.

“Oh” Ryō’s mouth forms a perfect ‘o’, then he smiles a toothy grin that Bakura doesn’t see because he forces himself to keep looking at the screen and at his character. “What about something like—” the words get stuck in his throat, what he wants to suggest is ‘Minkabh & Ryō’, or ‘The Bakura twins’ or something similar. But Ryō doesn’t think it’s right to _assume_ that Bakura is okay with the fake sibling relationship they weaved for all the people that get in their lives. “Uhm...”.

He now realizes that Bakura is looking at him, with an odd sparkle in his eyes. Ryō wonders is Bakura still shares his mind-space and knows what’s contained in his head because he can see in them some kind of _hope or emotion_ accumulated there between the brown and the gray that he is also feeling. Bright, bright, _bright._

“Minkabh and Ryō...” he mutters, his words only to be heard by Bakura. A secret between partners. Suddenly his hands are oh so interesting to watch and he tries to ignore how his tear ducts seem to start working all because Ryō has a master’s in assuming first the chaotic side of the situations. Anxiety is a bitch, as he colloquially words it sometimes. He squeezes his eyes and a shaky sigh escapes from his lips; waiting to hear an angry shout from Bakura, a cruel mocking laugh, a snarky remark.

Bakura presses his lips to a line, there an evident blush in over his nose and cheeks again and says his thanks to all the Gods that Ryō can’t see him. Bakura then lowers his gaze too, he watches his fingers over the buttons of the joysticks and how some parts of the matte finish are now shiny due to the wear and tear. He silently and profoundly inhales, then exhales slowly, inhales again, exhales, inhales, exhales—

“Fine”, his voice sounds weird, distant. 

Ryō stays in the same position. Petrified. Bakura’s words are like a spell that transformed him into a statue in a very dramatic position; his mind digresses and he thinks about the Renaissance period; dramatic poses, eyes in eternal suffering. Two warm drops fall over his thighs. 

“B-Bakura” his voice shakes. 

Bakura’s gaze is still wandering over the shine in the borders of the joysticks, he can feel how he too is drowning in the emotion and he stops breathing. He thinks that if he doesn’t breathe he won’t cry. He won’t cry, won’t cry, won’t cry. The knot in his throat hurts, he ignores the excess of water in his eyes that’s making everything blurry. _Gods damn it._

“Mi... Min—” he says, his lips tremble just a bit. He clears his throat waiting for the knot to dissolve. “Minkabh is... fine. You choose that name for me, right?”.

This forces Ryō to finally move and look at him. Bakura thinks that the sudden movement could’ve caused that Ryō to break his neck with such speed, and _that_ thought makes him reel and his chest to compress. Ryō has right now the biggest eyes, brown, shiny with _longing_ and still-forming tears. Bakura _doesn’t_ know that the fuck he should do with how he feels, because he doesn’t quite understand if he did good or not. And then Ryō laughs hard and he lets himself slip and his back and head are now hanging outside the armrest of the loveseat they share to play. He laughs and cries and Bakura is confused but the laughter is contagious, although his’ a nervous one. He finally made Ryō snap?

“Yadonushi—”, Bakura keeps calling him that way, he doesn’t feel worthy of calling him by his name. At the bottom of his heart, he feels just a teeny bit of remorse for what he did _to_ _Ryō_ , the rest can go to hell for all he cared. He stretches his hand, carefully, until he touches Ryō’s knee with the fingertip of his middle. He feels something like an electric shock invisible to the touch.

“Ryō” he corrects him. He still has half of his body out of the loveseat, he clumsily pushes himself back until his back touches the back pillow, he breathes in deeply to calm down and puts his hand over Bakura’s. It’s warm, so warm—

“Call me Ryō”.

Bakura smirks—too used to smile like this way in the past—in a glorious way that Ryō finds _adorable_ , this is something to what he now clings the way he clings to horror stories, desserts, to Camp Crystal Lake and now the plans for the future. 

* * *

Now the weekends are Ryō’s favorite because he can spend time with Bakura. Weekdays are Bakura’s favorite—because Bakura _feels_ in baby steps—when he can make a scavenger hunt on the island for Ryō to find the presents he got for him to decorate, the clothing and the new DIYs that he knows he hasn’t acquired. 

With the pass of the weeks, the island becomes a diorama in scale, a labyrinth with blood painted in the floors with the promise of monsters living in the sewers and bodies being dragged to the graves that also form part of the decorations. Black, purple and red roses embellish the paths of the intricate constructions. Both of them are proud of the island of terror they created, this can be heard in the inauguration video where they show the tour of it.

“Hello, ghouls and ghosts!” in the introduction, both of their voices can be heard; then it cuts to an animation with bats, thunder, and the shadow of pyramids in the background, the eye of Ra in the tip of the tallest one. 

“Welcome to Ryō and Minkabh’s channel! If anyone wants to visit our island send us a message and we can give you a Dodo Code”, Ryō’s voice can be heard, and a song in the background that sounds suspiciously like Spooky Scary Skeletons in 8-bit.

“I want you all to know that we build the island in a way we can modify it all the time. So no one will have the same experience twice” Bakura’s voice is deeper, stronger. In the video his character can be seen in the entrance of the island, he used the Smirking reaction to get his point across. So much time building RPG dioramas gave them the ability to do tactic changes like Bakura mentions without ruining what is already fixed on the island like the bridges and inclines.

“Come and visit, if you all dare”.

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea of the island from [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCjU07XqzEM&t=10s) YouTube user, I thought this is something that really matches Ryō’s aesthetic.


End file.
